Wednesday, March 6, 2013 at 02:38PM
The Committee for Municipal Electricity Choice

Good Energy, a municipal aggregation consulting firm, was recently approved by Wood River Township to act as their energy buyer. Good Energy currently represents over 110 communities and over 400,000 households, so hiring them to negotiate their municipal aggregation contract should get residents the best rate available. Residents still must pass a referendum on the April 9 ballot to receive the discounted rate.

Municipal aggregation is the banding together of multiple municipalities and counties in an effort to lower electricity costs. The April referendum, which only applies to unincorporated areas of the township, will grant authorities the right to aggregate for their residents. Madison County had a similar vote in November that failed. The reason for the failure, according to Township Supervisor Mike Babcock, was that voters in eastern Madison County voted no, as the aggregation did not apply to them. Most of those voters belong to electrical co-ops, and aggregation does not apply to members of a co-op. He added that the majority of residents in unincorporated Wood River Township voted yes to the referendum.

"The township voters were in favor of it, so we felt the need to pursue it," Babcock said. "(The township) has received numerous calls from residents during the past months wanting to know why their rates were higher than surrounding communities."

All of the incorporated municipalities in the township have approved aggregation. Good Energy CEO Maximilian Hoover said this referendum stands to help between 1,200 and 1,300 people, and he is excited his company can be a part of that.

This will be the third round of negotiations performed by Good Energy in the past year, and Wood River officials hope to be among the municipalities involved in this round of electric aggregation. Projected savings in this round are between 24 and 27 percent.

For more information on municipal aggregation, click here. For the full article, see below.

Article originally appeared on munienergychoice (http://www.munienergychoice.com/).